The role of religious social support in depression : the relationship between religious social interaction, perceived emotional support and depressive symptoms

This study aimed to investigate the association between religious social support and depressive symptoms. Previous research does not present a consensus about the relationship between religion and depression. Still, a number of studies do suggest that religion and social support can have a beneficial effect on depressive symptoms. However, religious social support in particular was not the focus of many studies regarding depression. The possible beneficial effect of religion and religious social support could have trans diagnostic implications and therefore emphasise the need for further investigation. It was assumed that increased contact to other believers and visits to religious meetings can promote religious social support and in turn decrease depressive symptoms. Religious social support was mostly measured by assessing the amount of church attendances. In order to gain a more detailed view of this concept a multidimensional approach was applied and the sub concepts religious social interactions and perceived emotional support were assessed. Using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) two groups were formed with people scoring high or low on depression and compared with each other regarding their level of religious social interaction and perceived emotional support. The results imply that there is no significant relationship between religious social support, its sub concepts religious social interaction and perceived emotional support, and depressive symptoms. Nonetheless, on item level it was possible to suggest that religious (spiritual) meetings are visited more often by people with higher depression levels than people with lower depression levels. Additionally, people who perceive more support from other believers have less depressive symptoms. These findings provide support for the notion that one way or another there is an association between religion and depressive symptoms. Therefore future research should gather more insight into the relationship between religious social support and depression by using a more suitable operationalisation and instruments of these concepts.